Unhappy sailors tired of long deployments, don't trust brass

Navy Survey: Sailors Unhappy, Don't Trust Brass
Military.com
by Kris Osborn
Sep 04, 2014

Sailors spoke negatively about work-life balance as well, with 62 percent of sailors saying they believe their work-life balance is not ideal. Only 21 percent of sailors said their work-life balance is ideal.

The survey found sailor morale to be a problem, finding only 18 percent of sailors consider morale to be excellent or good. Comparatively, 42 percent of survey respondents said morale is "marginal" or "poor."

A U.S. Navy retention survey found that sailors are increasingly unhappy with lengthy deployments, a high operational tempo, and recent calls to reduce pay and benefits.

In addition, fewer numbers of Navy sailors aspire to earn positions held by their superior officers as sailors have a widespread distrust of Navy leadership, the independent survey found.

"Sailors are most likely to leave uniformed service because of a perception of increasingly high operational tempo, poor work/life balance, low service-wide morale, declining pay and compensation, waning desire to hold senior leadership positions, and a widespread distrust of senior leadership, all of which erodes loyalty to the institution," the survey states.

The survey asked sailors about their jobs, quality of life and senior leadership issues. Overall, 5,536 sailors responded to the survey. The respondent pool was almost half officers and half enlisted sailors.
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